DETROIT (AP) — Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal emerged from the dugout to pitch in a ninth inning for the first time in the major leagues, triggering a roar and standing ovation from the Comerica Park crowd as men, women and children chanted his name.
“Little teary-eyed out there, honestly, before the inning started," Skubal said Sunday. "It was pretty cool. I just thought to myself, `12-year-old me wouldn't believe that was an opportunity to have the fan base support you the way it does and be in that moment.'
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Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal throws against the Cleveland Guardians in the first inning during a baseball game, Sunday, May 25, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal throws against the Cleveland Guardians in the seventh inning during a baseball game, Sunday, May 25, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal throws against the Cleveland Guardians in the ninth inning during a baseball game, Sunday, May 25, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal reacts after the final out against the Cleveland Guardians in the ninth inning during a baseball game, Sunday, May 25, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal reacts after the final out against the Cleveland Guardians in the ninth inning during a baseball game, Sunday, May 25, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
"It was pretty special.”
Indeed.
Skubal gave up two hits and matched a career high with 13 strikeouts and no walks in his first professional complete game, a 5-0 win over Cleveland that avoided a four-game sweep. He ended the game by striking out Gabriel Arias on a 102.6 mph four-seam fastball, the fastest strikeout pitch by a starting pitcher since pitch-tracking started in 1988.
He is the only major leaguer to throw a shutout with 13 or more strikeouts and fewer than 100 pitches since pitch counts records started in 1988, according to Sportsradar.
Skubal won the AL Cy Young Award and was the league's pitching Triple Crown winner last season, but the longest outing of his big league career had been eight innings last August against Boston.
The 28-year-old former Seattle University standout had his first complete game since a pair of seven-inning efforts in 2015 during his freshman season.
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch has kept Skubal on the mound for an average of 95 pitches over the previous three starts and the lefty's efficient afternoon allowed him to reach a milestone.
“Sometimes, it’s your big boy’s day and you’ve got to leave him out there,” Hinch said.
Skubal didn't give up a hit or a walk through five innings and finished with a nearly flawless performance. He had a baserunner for the first time after Will Wilson doubled on the second pitch of the sixth, ending a potential bid for a perfect game.
“After two (innings), you think about it,” Skubal acknowledged.
Skubal (5-2) gave up only one more hit and hit one batter in a masterful, 94-pitch outing that included just 22 balls. He’s the first player in franchise history to have a complete game without a walk, two or fewer hits and 13 strikeouts.
Skubal also became the first Tiger to have 10-plus strikeouts in four straight home games and his game-ending pitch was the team's fastest since at least 2015.
“I don’t know what to say because you don’t see it very often,” Hinch said. “When he’s got full intensity and full throttle, the sky is the limit.”
Skubal pitched the eighth complete game in the major leagues this season and fifth individual shutout.
That didn't give him any sort of retribution, though, after Cleveland's Lane Thomas hit a grand slam off Skubal in a 7-3 win that eliminated Detroit in Game 5 of their AL Division Series on Saturday.
“There’s no story there," Skubal said. "I got a ton of respect for a log of guys in that dugout, including their manager.”
Likewise, the Guardians admire Skubal a lot.
“He’s the best pitcher in baseball and he showed it today," Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said.
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Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal throws against the Cleveland Guardians in the first inning during a baseball game, Sunday, May 25, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal throws against the Cleveland Guardians in the seventh inning during a baseball game, Sunday, May 25, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal throws against the Cleveland Guardians in the ninth inning during a baseball game, Sunday, May 25, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal reacts after the final out against the Cleveland Guardians in the ninth inning during a baseball game, Sunday, May 25, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal reacts after the final out against the Cleveland Guardians in the ninth inning during a baseball game, Sunday, May 25, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal agents carrying out immigration arrests in Minnesota's Twin Cities region already shaken by the fatal shooting of a woman rammed the door of one home Sunday and pushed their way inside, part of what the Department of Homeland Security has called its largest enforcement operation ever.
In a dramatic scene similar to those playing out across Minneapolis, agents captured a man in the home just minutes after pepper spraying protesters outside who had confronted the heavily armed federal agents. Along the residential street, protesters honked car horns, banged on drums and blew whistles in attempts to disrupt the operation.
Video of the clash taken by The Associated Press showed some agents pushing back protesters while a distraught woman later emerged from the house with a document that federal agents presented to arrest the man. Signed by an immigration officer, the document — unlike a warrant signed by a judge — does not authorize forced entry into a private residence. A warrant signed by an immigration officer only authorizes arrest in a public area.
Immigrant advocacy groups have conducted extensive “know-your-rights” campaigns urging people not to open their doors unless agents have a court order signed by a judge.
But within minutes of ramming the door in a neighborhood filled with single-family homes, the handcuffed man was led away.
More than 2,000 immigration arrests have been made in Minnesota since the enforcement operation began at the beginning of December, said Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News on Sunday that the administration would send additional federal agents to Minnesota to protect immigration officers and continue enforcement.
The Twin Cities — the latest target in President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign — is bracing for what is next after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by an immigration officer on Wednesday.
“We’re seeing a lot of immigration enforcement across Minneapolis and across the state, federal agents just swarming around our neighborhoods,” said Jason Chavez, a Minneapolis city councilmember. “They’ve definitely been out here.”
Chavez, the son of Mexican immigrants who represents an area with a growing immigrant population, said he is closely monitoring information from chat groups about where residents are seeing agents operating.
People holding whistles positioned themselves in freezing temperatures on street corners Sunday in the neighborhood where Good was killed, watching for any signs of federal agents.
More than 20,000 people have taken part in a variety of trainings to become “observers” of enforcement activities in Minnesota since the 2024 election, said Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for Unidos MN, a local human rights organization .
“It’s a role that people choose to take on voluntarily, because they choose to look out for their neighbors,” Argueta said.
The protests have been largely peaceful, but residents remained anxious. On Monday, Minneapolis public schools will start offering remote learning for the next month in response to concerns that children might feel unsafe venturing out while tensions remain high.
Many schools closed last week after Good’s shooting and the upheaval that followed.
While the enforcement activity continues, two of the state’s leading Democrats said that the investigation into Good's shooting death should not be overseen solely by the federal government.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said in separate interviews Sunday that state authorities should be included in the investigation because the federal government has already made clear what it believes happened.
“How can we trust the federal government to do an objective, unbiased investigation, without prejudice, when at the beginning of that investigation they have already announced exactly what they saw — what they think happened," Smith said on ABC’s "This Week."
The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot Good in her car, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “weaponized” her vehicle.
Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended the officer on Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing.”
"That law enforcement officer had milliseconds, if not short time to make a decision to save his life and his other fellow agents,” he said.
Lyons also said the administration’s enforcement operations in Minnesota wouldn't be needed “if local jurisdictions worked with us to turn over these criminally illegal aliens once they are already considered a public safety threat by the locals.”
The killing of Good by an ICE officer and the shooting of two people by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, led to dozens of protests in cities across the country over the weekend, including New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Oakland, California.
Contributing were Associated Press journalists Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis; Thomas Strong in Washington; Bill Barrow in Atlanta; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio.
A woman gets into an altercation with a federal immigration officer as officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A federal immigration officer deploys pepper spray as officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A family member, center, reacts after federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Bystanders are treated after being pepper sprayed as federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A family member reacts after federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Federal agents look on after detaining a person during a patrol in Minneapolis, Minn., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
Bystanders react after a man was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)
People stand near a memorial at the site where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
A man looks out of a car window after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Border Patrol agents detain a man, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
People shout toward Border Patrol agents making an arrest, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Demonstrators protest outside the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey holds a news conference on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
Protesters react as they visit a makeshift memorial during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
